Christine Stephens gave employees at Roomful Express in Hempfield an earful on Thursday, because the store hasn't delivered more than $1,400 worth of furniture she paid for last month.
The furniture retailer wouldn't reimburse her or give her items worth the same amount yesterday, she said.
"I've been sitting on my floor since Nov. 3" when she ordered living room pieces and a kitchen set, Stephens said. "I'm on disability, and I can't afford (to buy) more high-priced furniture. They should have told me they were going out of business."
Stephens was one of an undetermined number of customers scrambling to get Roomful Express to fulfill their orders for home furnishings. Some customers paid in full before the company's surprise announcement Tuesday that it was closing its 13 stores in Western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio.
Roomful Express, based in Crafton, was placed in receivership by Allegheny County Common Pleas Court for failing to pay PNC Financial Services Group Inc. $18.8 million it owes to the bank.
Downtown-based Compass Advisory Partners, the court-appointed receiver that will oversee the closing process, will provide information for customers today on the Roomful Express website, said Nicholas Arrington, a managing partner.
Roomful Express won't be able to satisfy all the orders that customers have paid for, said Kenneth Thomas, a Compass partner, but the stores will try to either deliver the furniture or offer a suitable replacement. A closeout sale started yesterday and is expected to last a few months.
"We will be able to deliver some, but not all of the orders," Thomas said. The website will detail procedures for cash customers, and those who paid by credit card, Compass officials said.
Customers who paid by credit can have their credit card company cancel orders, Thomas said. Customers will have the right to seek a refund if they paid for furniture that wasn't delivered, although not all may get their money, he said.
Those who paid for furnishings with a bank debit card, for instance, wouldn't be able to get that money back from the financial institution, he said.
Stephens, 54, said she was told her furniture would be delivered before Thanksgiving. She was led out of the Westmoreland County store by a security guard yesterday, after becoming frustrated with responses to her questions.
She said she got a $342 kitchen table and chairs. But she used a debit card to pay Roomful Express $1,825 for an order that included a sleeper sofa and a loveseat.
Frank Rehak of South Greensburg bought a chest of drawers with a debit card after Thanksgiving.
"I paid for it already, and they said wait three or four weeks, but there's no guarantee I'll get it," said Rehak, 73.
Roomful Express customers should follow procedures outlined by the company's receiver to get their orders satisfied, said Nils Frederiksen of the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection.
The agency has been monitoring the situation to make sure the Compass firm follows steps to resolve consumer complaints.
"If they have a problem that is not resolved, then file a complaint," with the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Frederiksen said.
Roomful Express blamed its downfall on the downturn in the economy, particularly in the housing industry that resulted in a double-digit drop in revenue for furniture stores this year compared to last year.
Roomful Express' struggles are shared by others in the industry. Even in a good economy, household furnishings can be a challenging business because purchases are discretionary, said Raymond Allegrezza, editor of Furniture Today, a trade publication in High Point, N.C.
Both high-end and low-end furniture retailers face the same problems, Allegrezza said. Furniture rental centers in region may benefit from the loss of a competing lower-priced furniture retailer like Roomful Express, he said.
In the past three years, the industry has suffered from a slowdown in business that followed a plunge in housing starts, higher unemployment, a drop in consumer confidence and concerns over job security, he said. Furniture stores that used to sell more than 50 percent of their goods on credit can't do that now because of the tight credit market, Allegrezza said.
The home furnishings business started suffering before the recession, said Robert Levin, owner of the Levin Furniture chain based near Smithton. Levin Furniture operates a dozen stores in Western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, employing about 700 people.
While prices have risen in many industries, Levin said furniture stores have been hit with deflation. Prices of some products have been cut in half because they are made in China, Vietnam and other cheap-labor countries, so the retailer has to sell much more just to generate the same revenue, he said.
Levin said that his furniture store chain may pick up some business from Roomful Express closing, but the local market will have "one less major voice encouraging people to buy home furnishings."
For smaller furniture stores, picking a niche and providing strong customer service is a way to survive, said Karen Sauers, president of the family-owned Colonial Modern Furniture, based in Peters.
The smaller stores, with less overhead, can operate on a tighter margin, Sauers said.
Â
